Tag Archives: events

ELI09: Alternate Reality Games

Over the span of a few short days, have gone from reading a “7 things” brief about ARGs (alternate reality games) which mentioned in rather detached terms that they “offer engaging content” and “new opportunities for collaborative learning” …

… to attending a pre-conference workshop that explored elements of play ….

//playfullearning.pbwiki.com/

… to becoming a participant as an ARG unfolds here at the conference.

It turns out this mystery fellow Rufus has a blog … //rufuskbluth.blogspot.com/

and a website, and a Twitter account … and there on the table at the back of the room is another (non-web-based) artifact that is obviously also related in some way …

Conference participants are finding their own way through all of this, some more actively engaged, some less so, and a wiki has emerged from among a number of options as a place to compile what has been found to date.

Also found this blog post, a reference from the workshop wiki, which gets at some interesting elements re: philosophy.

In the case of Rufus, no one told us what to do, we just dove in. It’s an interesting mix of lots of pre-planning (the team promised to post the coordination docs by week’s end) combined with then opening it up and letting it take on a life of its own.

There’s a puzzle, which creates an itch, which leads you down the first of many rabbit holes … and the clues and content that people are collecting and sharing is bubbling up all over the place, as yet another layer added to this very interesting event.

Definitely not the same as just reading about it.

ELI09 – Participation and Collaboration: Social Learning

Heading out to the ELI09 conference tomorrow. I’ve been accessing resources from their website for quite some time now, and recommend the following:

7 things you should know about … (series): a great introduction to emerging technologies and their potential impact on teaching & learning (very succinct, 2-page format)

Horizon Report 2009 (pdf): co-published with the New Media Consortium, the Horizon Project Wiki is a deep well of information on emerging technologies for learning. Venture into this wiki *not* … if you were planning to use the next two hours for some other critical task!

I recently ran across official mission statements for both organizations:

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) helps institutions advance learning through IT innovation. ELI is a community that works together to stay on the leading edge of teaching and learning with technology through a focus on learners, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies.

EDUCAUSE (the parent organization) looks more broadly at higher education, learning and technology.

I like the focus on learning, and am looking forward to learning a lot!